There are three major analog television (TV) transmission standards in the world, namely the National Television System Committee (NTSC) standard, the Phase Alternation Line (PAL) standard and the Sequential Color with Memory (SECAM) standard. In addition, there are many local variants for each of these standards. Traditionally, each variant of each standard is associated with a corresponding design for a receiver. A TV manufacturer wishing to build a TV for use with a variety of variants of standards may, for instance, include a different receiver for receiving signals formatted according to each standard. The consequential hardware cost and complexity may be seen as a disincentive for building and marketing such a TV.
Clearly, a receiver architecture that reduces hardware cost and complexity while being flexible enough to receive analog TV signals adhering to a wide variety of variants of standards is desired.